Does a credit card debt in UK affect chances of Citizenship?

[Canooknic]

Hi all

I met a lady recently who moved here through her Canadian spouse a little after I sponsored my fiancé (so almost 2 years ago). I don't even know how we got onto the topic but she revealed that she has a £4000 credit card debt in England that she has just left over there, isn't paying it, hasn't notified them that she moved.
We were talking about her and my guy applying for their citizenship at roughly the same time but when we were coming home he asked me if she would even get citizenship granted if this debt exists so I thought I'd ask the experts and at least we could give her a heads-up and give her a chance to sort it before its time to file her papers in a couple of years.
Ignoring the moral side of things - is it ok for her to do this or will she be denied citizenship and be she t back to England (Or am I being dramatic??)

 

[scylla]

Her debt in the UK will have no impact on her application for Canadian citizenship or her PR status.

 

[Canooknic]

Her debt in the UK will have no impact on her application for Canadian citizenship or her PR status.

Thanks scylla.
I had come home and Googled it and found lots of things about recipricol agreements between the UK and here and CCJs being filed against her that could be carried out here but wasn't sure A/ how they'd even find her B/ if a CCJ would count as a crime

I'll still try and suggest that she pays it off, I'm sure she doesn't want debt collectors banging on her door anytime, although I'm not sure they'd even bother for £4000??

 

[scylla]

I don't think they'll pursue her all the way to Canada. But she should definitely clear up this debt since it will otherwise damage her credit in the UK. Sure - right now it sounds like they plan to live in Canada. However let's say something unexpected changes (e.g. parent gets sick, job transfer) and they decide to move back to the UK, that ignored $4K could end up making it problematic to rent or buy a property, get a credit card, etc.

And I'm totally with you on the moral / ethical front. I don't understand how someone can walk away from something like that. I think it speaks volumes about their character. The ability to walk away from responsibility will show up in other things they do / say - and at some point will catch up to them in ways they won't even realize or understand.

 

[Canooknic]

I don't think they'll pursue her all the way to Canada. But she should definitely clear up this debt since it will otherwise damage her credit in the UK. Sure - right now it sounds like they plan to live in Canada. However let's say something unexpected changes (e.g. parent gets sick, job transfer) and they decide to move back to the UK, that ignored $4K could end up making it problematic to rent or buy a property, get a credit card, etc.

And I'm totally with you on the moral / ethical front. I don't understand how someone can walk away from something like that. I think it speaks volumes about their character. The ability to walk away from responsibility will show up in other things they do / say - and at some point will catch up to them in ways they won't even realize or understand.

I agree. I'm pretty sure she didn't mean to let it slip to us, but a bit too much Christmas spirit made her very chatty. I think I'm going to try and find out if/how she will be affected, I'm sure I read somewhere about how debts can be sold to collection agencies over here but as I said before I'm not sure they'd bother for £4000 - it's not a big enough amount to bother chasing I would suspect.

Does anyone else have any knowledge to share with me? I don't want to lecture her, what she does is none of my business really, but we are becoming very good friends with them and I'd hate for something like this to cause them problems over here :

 

[Msafiri]

Such debt unless there was an issue over it being fraudulent would be a civil matter under English law (I'm presuming she obtained the Credit Card while residing in England) so won't be an issue for Canadian citizenship. Depending on which debt recovery organization (and how much) the debt was sold to they may decide GBP4K (CDN 6K) is worth it to them to chase for it in Canada. Putting the mroal issue aside there is a 6 year statute of limitations so at some point in time if she ignored the debt it would be removed from her credit file. In the meantime getting credit would be difficult especially with a CCJ.

 

[tst]

CIC will not check UK's record, so it will not effect but don't take any chance and hire lawyer.

 

[Canooknic]

Thanks for all your help, I'll be speaking to her about it this week